Invasion of the Body Snatchers
classified PGpart of Are You Now or Have You Ever Been..? Sunday Brunches
Please note: This was screened in Jan 2016
"Look! You fools! You're in danger! Can't you see? They're after you! They're after all of us! Our wives... our children... they're here already! You're next!" - Dr Miles Bennell
This classic sci fi thriller, which perfectly encapsulates the dark paranoia of the McCarthy era, stars Kevin McCarthy (no relation!) as Dr Miles Bennell, who has returned to his hometown to find that his friends and patients are strangely altered: they are emotionless and somehow inhuman and soulless. At first, he diagnoses a case of mass hysteria, but gradually he discovers that giant pods from outer space are, in fact, replacing the humans of the town when they sleep. In the midst of an invasion, Miles, along with his girlfriend (Dana Wynter), must try to escape and warn the authorities - before it's too late...
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is very much a product of its era, the Cold War 50s. Americans were encouraged to look at their neighbours and wonder if, while they looked and acted exactly the same, the might be harbouring anti-American ideals behind the scenes. It's definitely a historical allegory... but of what exactly? Are they pod people communists, secretly infiltrating society with their alien beliefs, beliefs that rob Americans of free thought and liberty? Or are they McCarthyites, so desperate to prove their anticommunist ideals that they mindlessly embrace conformity and leave no room for individual expression?
Or is it neither? Perhaps it's just a really great sci fi B movie with one of the creepiest endings ever? Propaganda, satire, or something in between... we'll leave it to you to decide!